170 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Soft parts : Iris dark red ; bill, legs, feet, and claws all black. 



A series of 43 specimens from Palestine, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, 

 Uganda, Kenya Colony, Belgian Congo, Tanganyika Territory, and 

 " West Africa " indicates that while this species is variable in size, 

 the variations are purely individual and have no geographical sig- 

 nificance. The wing length varies from 187 to 210 millimeters in 

 male birds, and from 188 to 204.5 millimeters in females. The mini- 

 mum given by Hartert ^^ is 195 millimeters. The alar spur varies 

 greatly in size, but birds with large and with small ones are found 

 in the same general region. As a rule the spurs are longer and 

 stouter in males than in females, but even this does not always hold 

 as the extremes for two sexes are the same. The spurs vary in 

 shape, some being straight, but most being slightly recurved. One 

 specimen, a male from Wadi Malka (U.S.N.M. 243085) has the spur 

 on the left wing normal, recurved, while the corresponding right one 

 is greatly decurved and lies along, and follows, the contour of the 

 bend of the wing. 



The tarsus is likewise very variable in length. Two females from 

 Tanganyika Territory have tarsi 75 millimeters long, while of 38 

 other specimens from various parts of Africa none has one longer 

 than 69 millimeters, but 2 from Palestine have tarsi measuring 73 

 and 77 millimeters, respectively. 



The two immature birds have the top of the head duller, less 

 bluish-black than the adults and have the feathers tipped with 

 sandy brown. The brown of the back, scapulars, and wing coverts 

 is narrowly barred with pale sandy; the bars being in reality the 

 light terminal margins of the feathers. The immature female has 

 the forehead whitish ; the male has it less so, more brownish, blend- 

 ing into the darker crown. The underparts resemble the adults but 

 the black is duller, more brownish, less bluish, and the chin is white. 

 The young male has the upper throat white as well, and in both the 

 dark feathers of the lower throat are short as compared with those 

 of adults, and do not overlap the white suprapectoral band. 



When assuming the immature plumage the tail molt begins with 

 the outermost rectrices and proceeds toward the middle ones. Both 

 young birds have replaced all but the central pair. The remiges in 

 these two specimens are all new and nearly full grown, but still 

 basally enclosed by their sheaths for a short distance. 



Sclater ®° gives the range of this plover as " * * * south to 

 about the latitude of Zanzibar and Lake Hannington in Kenya Col- 

 ony." I know of no coastal records south of Zanzibar, but inland, 

 it certainly ranges south of Lake Hannington. In Tanganyika Ter- 



^ Vog. pal. Fauna, p. 1565. , 



» Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 124. 



